American Beauty
by missmystery66
Summary: I know most people don't read the other character ones, but check it out anyway!


Chapter 1: Harry's Birthday

It was a mid-summers morning, sunny and warm. Harry was reading "Quidditch through the Ages" for the 5th time. Suddenly, he heard the rumbling noise of trucks, right outside his window. He looked up to see 4 moving trucks and 3 cars pull up in front of the houses opposite. Curiosity and excitement filled Harry with the arrival of new neighbors. 'Maybe they're witches and wizards too!' Harry thought eagerly. He was snapped back to reality when his aunt yelled "Get down here boy, you have work to do!" Reluctantly, Harry closed his book and walked downstairs to his malicious aunt. She gave him a list of chores to do around the house. He groaned and mumbled, "Some birthday…"

"What was that?" She asked sternly.

"Nothing..." Harry lied.

He started his long day of work with getting the post. After that, he went to the kitchen and started cleaning the dishes, when _whack_! Pig crashed into the window in front of him. Harry franticly opened the window, hoping that none of the Dursley's had heard the noise. Harry picked up the unconscious owl and untied a fairly large parcel and note attached to Pig's legs. He took the note and parcel and carried Pig to his room making sure his aunt didn't find out. Gently, he laid Pig on his pillow and placed the mail on his desk. _Chirp!_ Pig was awake so Harry put him in Hedwig's cage, to her annoyance. Harry sat at his desk and opened the letter. There were two parts. It read:

_Harry, _

_How are things with the muggles? Everythings ok here at the house. Sorry we couldn't invite you over this summer, well, you know why. It's been so busy around the house with school starting soon. I got a new broom! I had saved up some money over the summer from working at Fred & George's shop so that I could buy one. It's a Nimbus 2001! I can't wait to try it out with you later. Well I hope you have a happy birthday, if that's even possible. See you later!_

_Your mate,_

_Ron_

_I hope your having a good summer, Harry. It's been a long summer here at the house. We have already been school shopping at Diagon Alley. We bought your books and supplies and we will be sending them to you soon, for obvious reasons. You may want to send some money to Mrs. Weasley for the supplies. We all really miss you and wish you a happy birthday. I hope to see you soon._

_Your friend,_

_Hermione_

_PS: Dumbledore sent us your gift, knowing it might be more useful to you then him. From all of us, Happy Birthday!_

Curious as to what his gift was, he tore off the wrapping paper and ogled at his present. It was a seeing stone! It was a murky black color, perfectly round. The tag read: _Operates within a 20 kilometer radius. To see in the ball, command the area of viewing. _Harry was very excited, considering this was a very generous gift. Seeing stones are very expensive and rare. If Voldemort got his hands on one of these, they'd all be in deep trouble. Luckily, there are only 3 and they are all accounted for.

Then his heart sank when his aunt shouted for him to get working. He stuffed his present under his pillow and quickly scribbled a note to everyone at the house and sent it with Pig. Then he ran downstairs and finished with the dishes. At about 2 o' clock he was sent outside to work on the yard. Harry was picking the weeds when he saw through the bushes, 6 girls playing football. Two of them seemed about 13 or 14, three of them about his age more or less, and the last in her late teens. He watched them for a little while, wondering if he might meet them at Hogwarts. They all seemed to know the sport except a couple, but most of them were quite good. Unfortunately, he had to get back to work since Aunt Petunia was watching over him from the kitchen. Once Harry finished with the plants, he was given shears to trim the hedges. He looked to see if the girls were still playing football, but they were all gone. Though he did notice that the house directly across from his had the center window open. One of the girls that he saw playing football was staring at him from the window. She smiled at him and waved. He did the same. Then she walked away and he didn't see her again.

Harry had finished his work at about 5. Walking into the kitchen, he smelled Aunt Petunia's cooking. He was about to go to his room when Uncle Vernon called him, and the rest of the family into the living room.

"For those who didn't know, we have a few new neighbors" Uncle Vernon announced. "Your mum has invited the 3 families to dinner tonight," he explained to Dudley, pretending Harry wasn't there, "and I want you to look your best Dudley, so go with your mum to get changed." They went upstairs. When they were gone, Harry asked "What about me?" His uncle stated plainly, "You will stay upstairs and not make any noise, not even a peep; they do not know you are here and I would like to keep it that way." Harry would have pleaded but he thought it best not to considering his uncle's tone. So, as he was told, Harry went upstairs to his room.

Harry, though quite miserable, decided he would try out his seeing ball so he took it from under the pillow and sat on his bed. He sat there for a while, thinking about where he would try to see. As though it was an instinct, he said "1204 Grimmauld Place." All of a sudden the murk in the ball faded away and he could see the house. Realizing the view wasn't going to change, he told the ball to go into the kitchen. Then the ball went murky again. A couple seconds later, the ball showed Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Granger in the kitchen preparing dinner. Excited at his progress, he commanded the ball to go to Ron and the Twin's room. And sure enough, Ron was sitting at a little desk in his room opening a letter. Harry told the ball to zoom in, and so it did. It was his letter that Ron was opening. Ron read the letter and then started writing a reply. After a while, Harry got bored of this scene so he commanded the ball to go to Hermione and Ginny's room. Ginny was the only one in the room, since Hermione had gone to Ron's to finish the reply letter to Harry. Ginny was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. After a while, she got up and went for her books and worked on her homework. After exploring the whole house, he stuffed the ball the ball under his bed.

A tear fell from his face onto the floor. He hadn't realized it, but looking in the house reminded him of Sirius and how much he missed him. Wiping away another tear from his face, he laid himself on the bed and closed his eyes. Images of Sirius ran through his head… the first time he saw him before he got on the Knight Bus… the night in the Shrieking Shack… Sirius flying away on Buckbeak… Christmas dinner at Grimmauld Place… Everyone dueling in the Ministry… Sirius falling helplessly into the veil… PANG Harry jumped up in his bed, cold tears streaming down his face and his scar burning as if it was on fire. Rubbing his head, he wiped away all the sweat and tears from his face and opened the window. Cool, brisk air blew softly in his face and he checked his watch; he had only been resting for 10 minutes. He decided that the neighbors were still in the house, so he went to see if he should work on any homework. None. Bored and slightly exhausted, he sat on his bed again and decided he would take a look at the new neighbors in the Seeing Stone.

The Seeing Stone blurred for a second, and then showed the dining room downstairs. Harry was amazed at how they all managed to fit. Then he realized that some of them were eating on the table outside, which made more sense. The main table was full of all the adults, 3 husbands and 3 wives plus Mr. and Mrs. Dursley and all the kids sat outside. Finding the adult table rather boring, Harry directed the stone to focus on the kid table. For only 3 families, there was a lot of kids! 6 girls and 2 boys total. They were all engulfed in their own conversations. Wacthing them eating, enjoying themselves made Harry rather angry, he wished he could have been able to join them.

He watched them for a while, and then suddenly something caught his attention. The girl he had seen in the window was asking about Harry!

"Dudley?" she asked. "Yeah?" he replied indifferently. "I saw a boy outside working in the yard this morning, where is he?" she enquired. "Oh Harry? Yeah he's my stupid cousin who has to live with us because his parents are dead. He's bad news don't worry about him." Dudley said with great satisfaction.

"That's not a nice thing to say about your cousin, that's horrible that his parents died. Where is he?" She asked again. Dudley smirked and replied, "In his room, where he belongs."

And as soon as Dudley said that, the girl got out of her chair and headed up the stairs. Shocked, Harry scrambled up and shoved the stone under his bed and hid all his books. Then all of a sudden someone was thudding on his door. It was her. She walked inside and sat on his bed, surprising Harry slightly.

"Why aren't you downstairs eating with the rest of us?" she enquired. Harry was still a little flustered, but responded rather shakily "Err… Well…" She gave him an exasperated look which made him more nervous. "The… er… Dursley's don't like me very much and they didn't want your family and the other family's to know about me…" he finally said.

"That's horrible!" she practically shouted. "Keep your voice down please, if they find you up here I'm in big trouble…" he said while trying to calm her. He figured he had better change the conversation, so he said "I'm Harry, I never caught your name?" She blushed after realizing how foolish she acted by barging into his quarters and responded "I'm Chloe, Chloe Stone, it's nice to meet you."

PS: Hey, fyi to anyone out there reading this, I'm not an experienced writer I'm trying out my writing skills basically, please don't say really mean things I know its not amazing haha.


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